Desktop Environment, the software that controls the windows, icons, and menu.

Their comment is basically saying the experience of two distros using the same DE will be closer than the same distro using different DEs

If you are recommending a first time Linux user a distro, the goal isn’t to find the perfect one tailored for them, the goal is to get them to use Linux and not have a bad experience, putting a bunch of upfront conditions on choice is overloading

Distro hoping can happen later

I think the obsession part you are referring to isn’t their love for Mint or them regarding it as the best distro. It’s like someone asking which direction they should take to drive somewhere, there’s a sea of people responding with different routes with tiny differences and the Linux Mint response would be “Whatever the GPS decided”

I kinda dislike the low density bit, yes I agree we are different to the Netherlands and that impacts how we would build this infrastructure, but it shouldn’t be a full excuse.

The thing I see is we are more than capable of putting out large scale infrastructure like the rollout of fibre broadband and the completed highways works connecting Auckland to Hamilton and beyond

Your right, Its probably an economics of scale problem, building roads already has momentum and the equipment, while with rail we would need to commit to bigger + more projects that would take longer than a election term and risk the population thinking it’s a waste of their tax